Sunday, July 14, 2013

One month to go before the DXpedition begins

Well it’s now
only a month out from the DXpedition and I’m really looking forward to it,
especially as this trip was all planned and booked over 7 months ago.

I’ve been in
contact with the owner of the building on the island and he’s confirmed that I
have access to a 24 hour power supply so if the bands are open and I’m awake
then I’ll be on the air.

I’ve been in
contact with the charter pilot and he’s able to fly me to Flinders Island early
on Wednesday August 15 which means I should be on the air that day. It really
depends on the weather and how putting up the three antennas go.

There are two
12m fibreglass Spiderbeam poles and I’ve just built and tested the vertical
dipoles for 15m and 20m. These will be the two main antennas as I’ll be
spending most of my time on these bands. The third and back-up antenna is the
Butternut HF9V multiband vertical and this will also enable me to operate on
other bands later during the DXpedition. Mind you I’m keen to spend time on 40m
before my local sunset and local evening for North America possibly even on the
first or second day.

I’ll be
monitoring the bands over the next few weeks to keep up to date on conditions
as propagation to Flinders Island will be very similar to my QTH. I’ll then
post this on the blog a few days beforehand so that everyone knows where and
when to look for me.